1. Field of the invention
This invention relates generally to swimming pool cleaning apparatus and more particularly to an improved means for cleaning the water surface of swimming pools by providing an apparatus for skimming the surface of the water to remove all floating substances.
2. Discussion of the prior art
There are numerous devices available for skimming water surfaces. The automatic skimming provided by a pool's circulation system through the surface drain is very slow and may take hours to process, to the best of its ability, the surface water that does pass through it. While the surface drain is being used for skimming, use of an automatic vacuum device is precluded. In addition, this type of skimming has been found to be ineffective against the lighter, more buoyant, detridus commonly found floating on the surface of swimming pools, whether screened, unscreened, or indoor, (e.g., gnats, mites, spiders, dust, pollen, body or sun tan oil film, hair, insect spoor, pollution fallout, etc.). The finer elements of this detridus, the dust, the pollen etc., can actually float on top of the film of oil and combine with it to form a scum of a greater or lesser degree so buoyant that it could only be skimmed with a surface skimmer capable of sucking air as well as water--a process which is normally detrimental to all known pool pumps.
Hand held skimming devices which usually involve some form of screening mounted on a hoop attachable to a pole are also inefficient and ineffective against the smaller but omnipresent types of debris outlined above. Leaves, larger bugs and debris visible to an observer six to eight or more feet away may be strained out, but the smaller matter-the gnats, smaller bugs, the insect spoor, the dust, the oils and surface scum will pass right through the sieve and will soon reform on the surface where their presence will be distastefully obvious to the bather with his closer perspective. The bather need only stand still and look around carefully to find himself surrounded by all manner of unpleasant matter not readily visible on an agitated water surface or in all light. It is this inability of all known swimming pool skimming devices to cope with this fine debris and surface scum in an efficient and effective manner that a need was manifest for an apparatus that improved upon all known existing devices and methods in an expedient, effective and inexpensive manner.
There are several prior art patents in the field of skimming water surfaces which include: U.S. Pat. Nos.: 4,472,842; 4,557,001; 4,006,082; 4,053,412; 4,089,074; and 4,356,088. Except for U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,001, for the most part, the above referenced patents are related to the process of skimming or corralling and separating oil floating on the surface of water by using a boom or floating barrier which are imperforate, and are not designed for or are suitable for skimming the fine debris from the water surface of swimming pools. U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,001 appears to be more suitable for use in removing debris from the water surface of an unscreened backyard pool and would no doubt be effective in dealing with the larger type debris, (leaves, grass, flies, beetles, etc.) that may be found on the water surface thereof, but the smaller particles and scum would pass on through the rigid barrier presented by the weighted nylon or acetate mesh skirt as it was being pulled along the pool's surface or slide back into the water as the device was being removed. It is in the effective removal of the minute, but elusive finer type of debris that a need exists, and towards which this present invention is particularly and effectively directed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,842 uses a skein of material suspended from a series of connected floats and has a purpose similar to the present invention, but a radically different, less efficient, and less effective means of dealing with the problem.